We live in Michigan, so the weather is only good for pools about 3.5 months of the year. The house we live in had a pool installed in 1967 when the house was built - it's huge - 20 x 40 ft and 10 feet deep at the end with a diving board. It's a gunite pool and needs tons of work, but between my DH (who works in construction and is extremely handy) and our pool guy, they manage to keep it functional. For a big price, of course.
It's $800 to open it, it's $800 to close it for the seasons. I run the filters 12 hours a day in the summer since the size of the pool requires that long to keep it clean. It's pricy on the electric bill. Water is not free, my water bill in the summer goes from $280 for a quarter to$1100 a quarter when it comes time to fill it in the spring, keep it clean in the summer with back washing, and refill for evaporation. Chemicals cost around $150-200 a month. We had a leak in the lines that feed the pipe last year. He only charged us $800 to fix it, which was less than we anticipated, but we still have one possibly left to be fixed and then we'll have to put new concrete again. Because of our weather fluctuations and the pool decking being so old, there was lots of cracks in the pool decking and DH spent hours every weekend all last summer filling them with a specialized caulk. That was about $500 for the caulk alone, and nothing for labor since DH labored alone.
DH also cleans it every weekend a vacuums, adjusts chemicals, skims, etc, which takes an hour on average. Someone then skims a couple times during the week, and DH tests chemicals and adjusts mid week as well.
We really thought our kids -teens- would love it and use it a ton in the summer, but they may go in it 3 times a month. DH and I go in almost nightly, but sometimes with me it's guilt that forces me in since we spend so much time and money on the thing. It's pretty. It's an unusual feature in Michigan to have an inground pool this size (probably for good reason). I would never get a pool again. DH loves it and would get a pool again.